The sheriff was reported as saying Pilot Robert Krier with Ride the Sky Helicopters and passenger Steve Ahrendt, the owner of the cattle, were in the helicopter when it clipped a power line looking for loose cattle. Both occupants reported as suffering serious injuries.

Passing 500 ft in a descending turn at approximately 50 kt, the pilot reported the helicopter began to vibrate. The pilot was unable to stop the vibration and conducted a precautionary landing. The helicopter landed hard and severed the tail boom. The helicopter sustained substantial damage and the pilot and three passengers were not injured.

Date was recorded as 04-Jun-17 when helicopter wreckage was found, but as reports state the pilot’s family were looking “in the middle of the night” for him, and he was last seen on 03-Jun-17, we believe the accident date would most likely have been 03-Jun-17. NTSB also tweeted on 4th June that they were attending “investigating yesterday’s crash of a Robinson R-44 helicopter in Dimmit, TX”. No details of the situation have been reported, bar that it was working low level checking on cattle.

The accident killed 68-year old Don Oppliger – whos company owns ranches and farms in Texas, New Mexico and Nebraska to support the feeding of 230,000 cattle in six large feedlots. More than 90,000 acres of the roughly 150,000 acres held by the company are in Nebraska, including properties near Paxton, Wallace, Atkinson, Tryon and Johnstown.

Main blades struck street light on final approach to land at the Hohe Düne marina, and the instability created led to the crash. Tail (including rotor) separated in the accident. The complete scene is best seen in this YouTube video. Light injuries to the 4 POB – although some reports say 3 POB and one injury on the ground.

Crashed and destroyed by fire. 3 POB seriously injured. Passengers named as Carlos Marcelo Ruiz Sánchez and Juan Domínguez were transferred to a hospital in Naolinco, while the pilot was taken to a hospital in Xalapa.

two farmers and their sons were returning home from the Nampo Harvest Day on Bothaville in the Free State when the accident occurred. One farmer, Douw Wentzel Snr, and the other farmer’s son Andre Deale suffered fatal injuries.

Two passengers and a pilot were taking a waterfront tour, when the R44 experienced mechanical problems and an emergency landing was made. The helicopter struck two vans near a golf course and caught fire, but all three occupants got out before the flames broke out.

Operator was Santa Barbara Helicopter Tours, who lease it from Spitzer Helicopters

Crashed killing 3 onboard as the helicopter was monitoring forest fires in Bashkortostan, Russia. Reports coming in state that the pilot and 2 forestry workers were killed instantly when the R44 came down in the forest

on a local pleasure flight from a private facility at Redfern Lake, BC. As the pilot attempted a landing at approximately 7800 feet ASL near the edge of a cirque, the aircraft encountered descending air on final. The pilot elected to continue the approach and increased the collective to maintain the sight picture. The pilot then noticed the low rotor warning with the rotor RPM decreasing rapidly toward 70%. The aircraft landed hard and rolled over several times down the slope. The pilot and the two passengers evacuated the aircraft with no injuries. There was no post impact fire; however the aircraft sustained substantial damage.

During the approach and landing, the pilot sighted powerlines strung across his landing point, and manoeuvred to remain clear of them. While on the ground, the wind veered from a southwest to a southerly direction, so that to take off into wind, the helicopter would track perpendicular to the powerlines. After completing the pre-take-off checks, the pilot turned his attention to a mob of cattle, to ensure the noise of the helicopter would not send them through a fence. Taking off initially parallel to the powerlines, and the pilot then turned to manoeuvre around a tree and climbed to about 20 ft above ground level. The tree momentarily obscured the powerlines and the pilot’s attention was on the cattle.

As the helicopter rounded the tree, at an airspeed of about 50 kt, the skids struck the powerlines. The pilot heard the wires contact the helicopter and it decelerated rapidly. The pilot lowered collective and pulled back on the cyclic, but the helicopter rolled forwards over the wires, descended rapidly, and collided with the ground passenger-side down in a nose down attitude. The wire was hooked on the helicopter’s right skid, with power still running through it. After the blades stopped turning, the pilot exited the helicopter. The pilot was not injured and the helicopter was destroyed.

R22 went down on a training flight from Venice Regional Airport. Female student named here as Agnus Jolumo was airlifted to Sarasota Memorial Hospital with head and facial injuries, while the male instructor Ronald Vasconcelos went by land ambulance with minor injuries to Venice Bayfront Health

FAA quote this as N8560M but that R22 was cancelled from the N register a year prior to this accident and thus we are not quoting a registration or MSN at this time

On return from a local flight, pilot stabilizes the hovering helicopter, turns round before starting a fast forward about 5 m height. After about 300m the pilot the helicopter pitched up to stop hovering. He then receives a uncontrolled increase in engine speed and fails to reduce power. He loses control in rotation, the right skid struck the ground and the helicopter goes down on the left side. Substantially damaged

R44 with four POB crashed at the AgLand Cooperative fertilizer plant. Images show (1) tail boom sliced by main rotor blades and (2) heavy damage to the front of the cabin and all occupants injured, with two treated locally at Avera St. Benedict Hospital and two with more serious injuries transferred to a more equipped medical center in Sioux Falls. The three pasengers were all AgLand employees. The location is very close to Parkston Municpal Airport

Helicopter crashed into trees, dropping vertically nose-first between the trees down to the ground, killing both on board – named as 24-year-old Jeremie Belanger and 41-year-old Ken Mielke – both were pilots were pilots for Apex Helicopters, which was performing aerial spraying for a forestry company in the area.

During a hard landing in a field with low-level crop (presumably an emergency landing?), the helicopter rocked back onto its tail, resulting in the tail rotor gearbox and tail shearing off. Rest of helicopter appears unscathed, apart from the skids being splayed out as a result of the heavy landing.

The helicopter landed hard from an altitude of about 15 feet and slid about 8 to 10 feet. Both skids were spread apart and broken and the helicopter came to rest on its fuselage. Both tail rotor blades separated and the vertical stabilizer was damaged. There was some buckling of the fuselage. The tail boom and main rotor blades appeared to be undamaged, and there was no discernible tail strike.

Mid-air with Cessna U206F Floatplane RA-67523 killing all four in the R44 and five in the Cessna. Initial reports say the Cessna pilot was taking off in the evening into the sun and likely did not see the helicopter

Date is estimated, and may be any time in the range 23-Jun (last known flight) to 05-Aug, when the helicopter was seen damaged on a trailer in the insurance compound at Fairoaks Airport in the UK. Helicopter looks mostly complete, but tail boom a little bent and the lower part of the tail is bent round, suggesting a tail strike.

Helicopter was operating VFR from CYFB Iqaluit, NU to BGGH Nuuk, Greenland as part of a solo circumnavigation attempt. The pilot (Sergey Ananov from Russia) autorotated and ditched the aircraft in the Davis Strait, 204 nm east of CYFB, reportedly due to a broken drive belt. He was wearing an immersion suit and managed to take the life raft while exiting the aircraft. The aircraft sank. There was no ELT signal captured. Although there were several alerting devices on board the aircraft, the pilot only had time to retrieve the life raft before the aircraft sank. He managed to swim to a nearby ice floe. The pilot was being tracked by a responsible person. When the target had not moved for a period of 30 minutes, authorities were advised and search & rescue efforts commenced. Rescue efforts were affected by dense fog. The pilot floated on the ice floe until noticing the lights of the Coast Guard vessel 3 miles away. He fired a flare to attract attention and was rescued by helicopter approximately 32 hours after ditching. He was not injured.

Helicopter was being used to spray fungicide on fields of corn. The pilot approached and overflew one field checking for hazards and wind conditions, and then began a spray swath across the field. Midway through the first swath, the pilot heard the low rotor horn sound. Manually rolling the throttle up did not prevent the rotor RPM from continuing to drop. The pilot then attempted a quick stop and a controlled autorotation into the corn. The helicopter was substantially damaged by the impact but the pilot who was wearing a four point shoulder harness and a helmet was not injured.

Pilot Duane Fielding, of St. George, and his 14-year-old son/passenger were not seriously injured. Gust of wind while in a low hover led tail to touch the ground, causing the helicopter to become unstable and crash

There were no reported injuries among the 4 souls on board. Search and rescue located the site via emergency locator transmitter (ELT) signal and extracted the occupants. Unknown damage to the aircraft. CADORS 2015C2524

When at about 100 ft above ground level and an airspeed of 40 knots, the pilot conducted a turn into wind. As the helicopter turned, the pilot received a low rotor rpm warning. The helicopter collided with terrain and rolled onto its side, resulting in substantial damage (photo). The pilot sustained minor injuries.

Final report says “The Robinson Helicopter Company Safety Notice SN-24 states that rotor stall due to low RPM causes a very high percentage of helicopter accidents. These mostly occur close to the ground during take-off and landing. Safety Notice SN-10 reminds pilots to have their ‘reflexes conditioned so they will instantly add throttle and lower collective to maintain RPM in an emergency’.”

The pilot was intending to make a local flight and having completed his pre-flight checks, gradually increased the rotor rpm to about 80%. From the CCTV it can be observed that at about this time, the helicopter rapidly yawed to the left and rotated through about 290° before tipping over onto its right side. The helicopter came to rest with a sufficient gap between the forward right door, which had opened as the helicopter struck the ground, and the concrete apron to enable the pilot to vacate the helicopter unaided. The pilot reported sustaining minor injuries.

After lift-off, about 30 ft above the ground the pilot reported that the canopy became shrouded in condensation. With a loss of visual reference, the pilot attempted to manoeuvre the helicopter to an area suitable for landing. During the attempt to land, the helicopter struck the ground and rolled on its side. The passenger has minor injuries and the helicopter was substantially damaged.

Crashed into a shallow river, possibly after hitting wires. 4 POB rescued OK. Even if the helicopter survived in a rebuildable state, the locals manage to pull it apart sufficiently in this video that it is most unlikely to be rebuilt. This tweet claims it was unregistered. The occupants were all from Frabelle Fishing, a Filipino company